Gene therapy and translational molecular analysis laboratory

Professor Simpson’s group focusses their research on the gene therapy of diabetes mellitus. Specifically, her research is concerned with investigating the possibility of engineering an artificial insulin-producing cell to replace the insulin-secreting beta cells that have been destroyed by the autoimmune process in Type I diabetics. In this she has been successful, in engineering several human liver cell lines to store and secrete insulin to a glucose stimulus. One of these cell lines (Melligen) has reversed diabetes in an animal model and is licensed for development to “PharmaCyte Biotech Inc.”

In particular the work now focuses on novel strategies to deliver genes using lentiviral and adeno-associated vector systems with the aim of reversing diabetes. The group has several world first achievements reversing diabetes in rats, spontaneously diabetic mice, humanised mice and pigs. She collaborates on clinical studies, studies linking the microbiome with Type 2 diabetes and the mechanisms behind some cardiovascular diseases and cancer.